Amazon's self-driving car division Zoox has leased two more industrial buildings in Hayward, expanding its footprint in the East Bay city by more than 350,000 square feet as it races to scale up production of its steering-wheel-free robotaxis. The new space sits at 25500 Clawiter Road in western Hayward, just north of Highway 92, and lands right next to the company's existing 220,000-square-foot factory.
The deal, reported by San Francisco Chronicle, involves two adjacent warehouses owned by PGIM. JLL announced the completed lease and represented the landlord in the transaction, while CBRE represented Zoox. Hayward city records show the company has already been issued a business license to operate at the warehouses, according to the Chronicle's review of public filings.
A Zoox spokesperson told the paper the facility will provide space to scale the company's purpose-built robotaxi fleet and continue developing the vehicles in California, though the spokesperson declined to share specifics on exactly how the new buildings will be used. Zoox did not immediately provide further comment about the broader expansion when asked.
A Growing Manufacturing Footprint Near the Old Gillig Site
The new lease builds directly on Zoox's existing production base in the neighborhood. The company's main 220,000-square-foot assembly facility sits at 25810 Clawiter Road, part of Hines's Exchange @ 92 industrial campus, which was built on the former Gillig bus factory site. Zoox opened that plant last June, and the facility carries annual assembly capacity of up to 10,000 robotaxis.
Zoox also leases a smaller, 34,000-square-foot logistics and staging facility at 25555 Clawiter Road, rounding out a cluster of Hayward addresses now dedicated to building and moving its driverless fleet. The company's headquarters remains across the bay in Foster City, where it expanded its office and research-and-development footprint by about 200,000 square feet last year.
Hayward's chief economic development officer, Paul Nguyen, described the Clawiter Road deal as an example of the city attracting and accelerating modern manufacturing growth. He said major factors companies weigh when choosing a site include heavy power access, supply-chain and labor-market connectivity, and speed to market. Nguyen added that advanced manufacturing companies like Zoox are driving demand for industrial space in Hayward and helping support the broader artificial intelligence and robotics industries locally.
Tight Industrial Market Makes Big Leases Count
The timing matters for Hayward's commercial real estate market. East Bay industrial vacancy stood at 8.3%, according to research from Kidder Mathews. Smaller industrial spaces had tighter vacancy than larger ones.
Hayward's industrial pipeline remains active beyond the Zoox deal. Dermody Properties is nearing completion on a 218,000-square-foot project at 3636 Enterprise Avenue, while Redco Development is building roughly 99,000 square feet at 25375 Clawiter Road. Centerpoint is redeveloping 1571 Industrial Parkway West into new industrial space, and Prologis has plans for a speculative building on a site larger than 10 acres at 3600 Depot Road.
What the Robotaxis Actually Look Like
Zoox's robotaxis already carry passengers in San Francisco and Las Vegas, with four-passenger cabins featuring seats that face each other and no steering wheel or pedals. But where riders can actually pay for those trips depends heavily on which side of a state line they're on. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration granted Zoox a two-year federal exemption in July covering up to 2,500 custom driverless vehicles annually, a regulatory green light that allowed the company to launch paid commercial robotaxi rides in Las Vegas in August, according to Venture Atlas.
California tells a different story. Records from the California Public Utilities Commission show Zoox currently holds only Drivered Pilot and Driverless Pilot permits in the state, which legally bar the company from charging passenger fares, as reported by The Auto Wire. That means San Francisco rides remain free, limited to riders who sign up through the company's Zoox Explorers waitlist. California splits oversight of autonomous vehicles between the DMV, which governs driving authority, and the CPUC, which handles passenger transport and fare approvals — and Zoox has not yet cleared that second hurdle.
Zoox has leaned into its San Francisco presence in other ways even without fares. Hoodline previously reported that the company leased a storefront and rider lounge at 301 Sutter Street in downtown San Francisco to serve as a public outreach hub, letting potential riders inspect vehicle interiors and join the waitlist while the company ramps up manufacturing across the bay.
Safety Scrutiny Continues Alongside Expansion
Zoox's scaling push has come with ongoing federal safety reviews. In July, the company filed a Part 573 safety recall report with NHTSA covering 105 robotaxis after software trouble detecting heavy smoke caused a driverless vehicle to brake hard near an uncordoned emergency fire scene on June 20.
Amazon acquired Zoox in June 2020 for roughly $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion in cash, according to Forbes. In August, Zoox unveiled its final production-ready robotaxi design and said it aims to scale manufacturing at the Hayward plant toward a target rate of 100 custom driverless vehicles per week, per The Robot Report.
For Hayward, the Clawiter Road expansion adds another anchor tenant to a submarket already absorbing new supply amid rising vacancy. With Zoox's manufacturing cluster now spanning three separate addresses in the same corridor, Western Hayward's identity as an advanced manufacturing and robotics hub looks increasingly cemented.
